Last week, Michelle invited me to have dinner with a friend to celebrate her opening her own (already successful) business. I have been harboring a bone deep craving for a buffalo chicken cheesesteak that neither god nor man has been able to sate, so I knew what I wanted before I entered the restaurant. Unfortunately, a proliferation of sesame seeds conspired against me and I was honor bound to trade sandwiches with Michelle. Uncheesesteaked. BCCs occupied all of my waking hours until I had one from a new place. Next time I’ll eat it while it’s hot rather than letting it sit for a few hours. I am not an amateur ordering takeout on a Saturday night at dinner time the night before Easter. Before a bigger than usual meal, I intend to eat as normally as possible until the meal but I did not achieve this last weekend. I went from cheesesteak to breakfast sandwich to cheesesteak leftovers to Easter dinner. If I were Jesus himself, I wouldn’t have had enough lift to get out of the tomb. Choices were made!
Easter is my holiday (Michelle is Thanksgiving and Mom is Christmas) and I’ve been rotating three ham/pork recipes for Easter: Alison Roman’s Ham Party, Marc Vetri’s dearly departed Alla Spina Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder, and Momofuku’s Bo Ssam.This year was a bo ssam year, so circumstances had me cast a wider net for Easter dinner since we are more Sound of Music and candy Easter people and less “He is Risen” Easter people and invite friends for dinner. Who better to invite over for a huge pork shoulder but two of my best friends who keep kosher. Don’t worry, I made crispy tofu and mushrooms for my girls! We drank wine, ate dinner and pineapple upsidedown cake, and chatted for hours. Friendsgiving gets a lot of attention in the friends plus holiday portmanteau space, but I’m making a case for Freaster. Freaster doesn’t portmanteau as fluidly as Friendsgiving but a Freaster was indeed had by all. I am grateful to fill my loved ones with food, wine, and a good time, to hug them close and tell them I love them directly in their beautiful faces.
This Week’s Vocabulary List
The Book of Love by Kelly Link
Voluptuary: (noun) a person whose main interest is luxury or pleasure
The first 20 pages are so dense with information, I’m reluctant to share anything because I don’t want to spoil anyone hoping to go into a fresh Kelly Link with no information, as I did. In broad strokes, a giant dog, or is it/he a wolf, enters a darkened classroom, taking up more space than any dog should. His large, red tongue lolls from his jaws, not quite canine.
A wolf in popular culture usually means to symbolize an awakening, sexual or otherwise. The text describes a “voluptuary’s tongue,” the wolfish licking of chops for their own pleasure. Better to taste you with, my dear remains to be seen. I thought about the Jessica Rabbit of it all but she’s famously not bad, but simply drawn that way but this wolf, I suspect is both bad and drawn that way. There’s a difference!
I liked to see this word as a noun—a statue to commemorate pleasure and luxury.
Not to be confused with its often misused cousin, voluptuous, which came to mean the characterization of pleasure seeking rather than the shape that elicits the pleasure.
After what I’m about to say in my March reading wrap up, maybe I shouldn’t build up expectations after a long awaited book. Ultimately, I don’t mean it when I’m talking about the Queen, Kelly Link. I started this book a few weeks ago and had to pause to get myself out of NetGalley jail. I returned yesterday afternoon during the THUNDERSTORM. This extreme March/April weather should scare all of you. According to my subscriber map, we’re all going to be swept into the Atlantic Ocean. Should we get a boat together, guys?
Practical Applications
My family is going eclipse hunting next week in the path of totality, so I naturally need something to read. This means I will be maxing out my library apps and hauling two hardcovers across state lines for my vacation. Who knows who I’ll be after 7 hours in the car? Though my trip will be short and spent mostly navigating in the car, I intend to make the most of my time as the team Voluptuary-in Chief, the Director of Fun and Games. I take my role of DoF&G very seriously as I am always aware of my distance to ice cream, wine, and a beach. It’s currently 39° at our lakefront rental which features water sports as its main entertainment. Do I dare tempt the universe and stand up paddle board on a possibly frozen lake or gratify my appetites with pizza and other treats? What is a vacation if not a series of little treats?
March Reading
I found myself in a NetGalley jail of my own design due to stockpiling titles— a thing I didn’t know was frowned upon. I have been tanking my own score and I can’t let a bad grade marr my permanent record! I cleared half of my docket so far and will probably take some time off from galleys to get to some physical books that I have reached the maximum renewal amount.
Tom Lake by Ann Patchett: I’m a sole library user, so I was on the waitlist for this book from its August release for almost 5 months. I kept hearing breathless reviews of the book, Meryl Streep’s audiobook performance and when it was finally my turn, it was fine. Not good, not bad, but fine. I enjoyed the few surprises and I learned more about cherry farming than I knew at the beginning of the month, so it wasn’t all bad! However, It felt like other Covid books with their 2020 checklist of events. My biggest complaint was that it lacked heart. I felt disconnected from both plot lines because they both felt unfinished and ultimately unsatisfying. I try to resist critiquing a book because it didn’t go the way I hoped, but I felt like nothing at all happened and what happened didn’t move me the way I hoped. I must confess that I booed at this title when it was a clue on Jeopardy! this week and no one knew it.
Margo’s Got Money Troubles by Rufi Thorpe (out June 11) My Goodreads Review Please plan your pre-orders and library holds in order to be second in line, behind me, to be obsessed with this book. The book of the summer regardless of the season.
Today Tonight Tomorrow by Rachel Lynn Solomon: This was my favorite read of this month. I received an e-ARC of the upcoming Past Present Future by Rachel Lynn Solomon, not knowing that it was part two. Once I got my hands on this, I was entirely swept away. I wrote about my experience reading this last week and I cannot stress enough how much I enjoyed this book. I described it as the intersection of the Sloppy Firsts books and Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist and if that doesn’t mean anything to you, you now have SIX MORE BOOKS TO READ.
Past Present Future by Rachel Lynn Solomon (out June 4) My Goodreads Review This was a strong companion to Today Tonight Tomorrow and if you can read them back to back, I recommend arranging this for yourself. Readers are treated to a look at Rowan and Neil after their first summer together and their freshmen year apart as they learn to grow together in each other's absence.
Vocabulary Scholars, consider my newsletter recommendation in Essential Vacation Salads to travel with a pasta salad and congratulate yourself for the duration of your trip. No one is ever sorry to have a little bite of pasta salad to stave off irregular mealtime insanity. Again, who knows who I’ll be after I defrost into my final form under the light of the solar eclipse.
I hope you all enjoy the eclipse if you can. Offer some intentions, if that’s your thing. I’m hoping to be cured of my Nerds Gummy Cluster fixation amongst other things. Make sure to wear sunscreen and protect your eyeballs! Better to read Vocabulary School with, my dears!
Love,
Andrea
Thank you for stopping by Vocabulary School!